Chelsea chairman wants Mourinho to stay

Chelsea confirmed today that Jose Mourinho's extraordinary achievement of winning the Premiership in his first season with Chelsea is to be rewarded with a new contract in the summer.

Although Mourinho would prefer to take matters into his own hands, if Arsenal fail to beat Tottenham tonight then Chelsea will be crowned Premiership champions.

Chelsea have already won the Carling Cup and are in the semi-finals of the European Cup, with the first leg against Liverpool on Wednesday. It is against that backdrop of remarkable achievement that head coach Mourinho, who threatened to walk out last month in a row over the club's support for him in his row with UEFA, has negotiated a new deal worth around £5million a year.

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck revealed that the club want him to sign it soon and stay at Stamford Bridge for the long term, but he added that winning the Premiership in his first season with the club was not part of Roman Abramovich's strategy.

He said: "We want to confirm that long-term relationship. He is the best manager in the world. We feel very lucky to have him. There were no demands that Jose be successful this year. There was an understanding it would take a couple of years. Candidly it wasn't a strategy that had success this quickly."

Buck went on to hit back at the club's critics who have rounded on them for the way they have conducted themselves this season. Retorting to claims, particularly from Arsenal, that the Russian tycoon should show more moral leadership, Buck said: "It is a little disingenuous that some people in and out of football have criticised us. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

"We don't have the worst red card record in the history of football. We haven't thrown pizzas in the dressing room. So I reject the whiter than white which is coming from certain quarters within football."

Following Saturday's 3-1 triumph over Fulham, which came thanks to goals from Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and Eidur Gudjohnsen, Mourinho's squad will gather at the Chelsea Village Hotel this evening to cheer on Spurs and to celebrate a possible title triumph.

Mourinho might be prepared to wait but his players and the club's supporters are not as patient.

Buck said: "That's just the manager's opinion. I would like to win it as soon as possible and, deep down, I'm sure he'd like to do it the same way. As we all know, we've got two big games coming up against Liverpool and we want to be as fresh as possible going into those two games."